Friday, 30 May 2008

Skyline Aviation's King Air 200 ZK-PLK is ready for air ambulance operations following its refit at Hamilton. As N188TC, it arrived into Hamilton at the end of March and subsequently flew as ZK-PLK to Hastings on 28May. Today, 30May, it flew to Auckland, Hamilton and back to Hastings on a flag waving exercise.

Wayne Grant captured the aircraft during its time in Auckland. Note the small "Skyline Aviation" titles on the rear, lower fuselage.

Thursday, 29 May 2008

Shot at Ardmore on 27 May was SA 315B Lama ZK-IRA, formerly operated by Gisborne Helicopters. It is about to be exported again.

At Heliflite, the R44's were again prolific, including this new machine ZK-ISA. Also present were ZK-IWH and IXP.

Up at North Shore was taildragger A152 ZK-MDO c/n A1520974, first registered on 28 January this year to MDR Aviation.And finally, our sole EC145 ZK-IGT at North Shore c/n 9110. It betrays it's origins by being officially described as a BK117 C-2.

On line with the Canterbury Aero Club since 15-05-2008 is the Piper PA-28-181 Archer III , c/n 28-43638 . I finally managed to capture it today.

As N1005J it ferried into NZ from Santa Monica, Hilo, Christmas Island, Pago Pago and into Auckland on 17-04-2008. It arrived at the Club on the 18th and was whisked into the engineering hangar. See previous postings on 20-04-08 and 06-05-08.

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Well Greybeard has solved the Cessna 150 ZK-CCL mystery at Ardmore.He has also sorted out the Green Zlin Z-37T at Taieri.In talking with Bill O'Connor (Flying Ag Co) Greybeard learnt that he was planning on acquiring this aircraftOn 22-04-2008 a Zlin Z-37T with c/n 008 was listed as ZK-BOC to Flying Ag Company of Alexandra.I was talking with Mark Paterson of Southair yesterday and he confirmed that the green monster is indeed c/n 008 and that Bill had acquired it to add to his collection of Zlins at Alexandra.There is apparently one minor hitch at this time - no log books to advise the airframe hours. The Z-37 is only certified for 3000 hours.So we continue to watch and wait.This aircraft was originally registered as OK-RJB in the Czech Republic; it moved over to Hungary to become HA-MGY before returning to OK-RJB.Not too sure of its NZ moves, but I know that early in its time at Taieri it had hopes of becoming ZK-KRB for Keith Baillie. This never happened and it has remained at Taieri ever since.

Pic taken in Aug 2005.

I also gleened from Mark at Southair that an English gentleman - who has come to NZ from Australia - has imported a Bell 47 and a Pitts Special. The Bell is currently flying in its foreign marks at Wanaka and the Pitts is coming together at Taieri.

Illustrating the current madness being perpetuated on the civil register, the Blue Bus blog about Nelson 19 May 2008 held an image of AS 350 ZK-HYM of Milford Helicopters. Here it is again on the Cascade Creek airstrip on 14 February 2008. Except it's not! This is the replacement, c/n 3287, first registered 1 Mar 07, the day after the last one was cancelled. You are pretty hard pressed to see the difference between the two.

By the way, the C150C ZK-CCL parked up at Ardmore is c/n 15059742 ex ZK-CCK. Since ZK-CCK had since been reallocated, Arthur took the next one available in sequence. Simple really.

The Motueka based Moyes Dragonfly ZK-DGF/2 , c/n C85 , of Blue Sky Microlight Ltd, was captured outside its hangar on a gloomy May the 20th 2008. It carries the "Tasman Sky adventures" script under its port wing.

Sunday, 25 May 2008

Zenith CH601-XL , ZK-ZXL , c/n 6-9726 , was lost in a fatal accident near Wairoa airfield in the very early hours of this morning (25-05-2008) with the loss of both occupants.Pic late in the trade day at Wanaka airshow 2006.

Withdrawn from service about six years ago; these Douglas A4 Skyhawks of the RNZAF have been in storage in one of Safeair's hangars at Woodbourne. A recent need for hangar space for the C130 upgrades has meant these aircraft have been "spraylat" covered and placed in open storage.

BAe Jetstream Srs 3100, c/n 839, ZK-JSA is one of three festering away quietly at Nelson airport. The other two being ZK-JSH, c/n 838, and ZK-JSI, c/n 761.

Not festering (yet) but parked up at Nelson is the BAe Jetstream Srs 4100 A3-XRH, c/n 41052 of the now defunct Tongan based Peau Vava'u Airline. This aircraft returned to Nelson from Tonga, via Auckland, on 09-04-2008. It was previously operated as ZK-JSM by Origin Pacific Airways.

Seldom seen (by me). Cessna 180 ZK-BDR/2 was caught at Nelson on 19-05-2008.

This aircraft , c/n 32496 , has an extensive Australian history since 1956.

It was ferried into Auckland via Norfolk Island on 13-11-1994 and was listed briefly to Airflite South from 28-11-94 until relisting to its current owners Pukaki Inns Ltd on 16-12-94. It seems to spend most of it time tucked away in its hangar at Omarama.

The above pic shows the Aerospatiale AS350B2 ZK-HYM/2 , c/n 9045 , at Milford Sound in December of 2003.

During February 2007 a long line went up through the rotor blades and by the time it was landed the airframe was damaged beyond economical repair.

It has now re-appeared with Helicopters (NZ) Ltd from 12-05-2008 as ZK-HMQ/3.

These two pics taken on 19-05-08

Oh the lovely sound of those Continental GTSIO-520's as the Cessna 404 Titan Ambassador 111, ZK-NDY , c/n 404-0693 , takes off from Nelson on 19-05-2008.

This aircraft arrived in NZ As N6764D back on 14-09-2007 and has spent much of its time up until now being worked on at Avtek in Timaru.

Although registered to Dennis Thompson International Ltd, it carries the Ashburton Aviation Services logo on the fuselage side just ahead of the door.

Tuesday, 6 May 2008

The Cessna 310P ZK-DTM/2, c/n 310P-0199, is still lurking about at Christchurch. It was parked in the helicopter compound today.

It is marked "Precision Aerial Surveys".

The Canterbury Aero Club new Piper PA-28-181 Cherokee Archer III , c/n 28-43638 , was listed as ZK-LJI on the first of the month. It however still carries its US N1005J marks.

At Wigram the Vans RV-4 ZK-SIM/2 , c/n 2826 , had just returned from a run to determine fuel flow rate. This machine was built in the US as N493DC and imported into NZ and registered here on 11-08-2005 to A T Sim. It is now with E D Langston....